Boomrocker

Boomwhackers® - those colorful pitched plastic tubes - continue to be fun and educational tools for students (and their teachers!). Here's a simple piece featuring diatonic Boomwhackers®. "Boomrocker" is a call and response piece in which players play a line and electric guitar "answers" them. At measure 9, the melody becomes unison as Boomwhacker® and guitar join forces. Then we do it all over again, only this time the lines are divisi.

No rocket science here - most of the notes are simple quarter notes. But this piece helps students to hear the subdivided beat on the call and response portions at measures 5 and 17. If they played it correctly, they'll know it because the guitar does exactly what they do. A good teaching method might be to have your students mentally double the beat (but not the tempo!), so that eighth notes keep the pulse of the song. Explain that a quarter note is the equivalent of two eighth notes, and they can count them by saying "1 and 2 and," etc.

Sometimes we record Boomwhackers® in the studio using just us writers and producers (or anyone we can talk into playing, like unsuspecting engineers and interns). This time however, we used our kids because, well, we had time. They really, really, really enjoyed this. It was very interesting teaching them, but once they got the hang of identifying their own notes, they did fine. You will hear that the performance is not perfect, and that is exactly how it should be. Remember that they are kids, and they're having fun while they're learning!

After the song, we recommend letting players "applaud" freely with their Boomwhackers®. Make it a tradition! After the intense concentration of playing, it feels good to be able to let go for a few seconds. Cut them off when you've had enough.

By the way, the guy yelling "Ready! Go!" at the beginning of the piece is our wild and crazy drummer, Dane Clark. We don't let him out too much, so these outbursts are bound to happen. :-)

Note: If you would like the convenience of a reproducible single page part for your players, they are available in the Student Reproducible Parts which correspond with this issue of Music K-8. Just give us a call at 1-800-437-0832 to get yours right away.